


Winning Gold Isn't Everything

by Katybug1992



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: AU-High School, AU-United States, Jack is Lorelai Gilmore, M/M, Protectiveness, Shy Luke, hints of an eating disorder, swimmer!Luke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 12:44:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katybug1992/pseuds/Katybug1992
Summary: Luke won five Gold medals at the last Olympics and desperately wants a shot to win more before he had his career ending surgery.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I based the town off of Stars Hallow.

Luke groaned as Mr. Matthews announced that they would be doing a group project that would span the semester. He hated group projects, had always worked better on his own. That why he was a swimmer. It was a sport where his individual performance could only improve the team. He had won five gold medals at the last Olympics, he had been fourteen, and when he got home he wanted nothing more than to be invisible again. No one in the school had cared about him before he had gone to the Olympics and he kind of hoped it would stay that way. 

He was criticized before because he had no friends, now he was criticized because all he did was study and train. He avoided group projects like the plague because he would no doubt end up doing it all himself, anyway.

“Michael and Calum?” the teacher called out, forcing Luke to zone back in, “You two will be with Luke.”

Michael let out a groan and Luke looked back down at his desk. Luke didn’t know what he ever did to the other boy, but he knew probably deserved the animosity the other boy sent his way. He looked back up as Calum dragged Michael over to where Luke sat in the back of the room, pushing Michael into the desk in front of Luke and sliding into the one next to the blond.

“I don’t think we ever officially met.” Calum greeted, “I’m Calum Hood and this is Michael Clifford.”

“Luke Hemmings.” Luke replied with a tentative smile.

“Nice to meet you, Luke.” Calum grinned, “Now, what is this project?”

“We have to modernize and re-invent a fairytale.” Luke replied, showing Calum the grading syllabus.

“So that’s what he spent all of the class period talking about…” Calum trailed off at the sight of Luke’s horrified face and rushed to say, “I’m just messing around. I was paying attention.”

Luke blinked a couple of times and nodded, forcing out a laugh that caused him to wince slightly.

“So, we should probably meet up after school today to talk about what we want to to.” Calum pushed forward, trying to ignore the confusion the blonde boy always made feel, “Unfortunately, my house is out of the picture. The mom and sister are having an epic fight and the whole house is a war zone.”

“So is mine.” Michael replied, “My mom won’t let anyone but Calum over until my room is spotless and that’s not going to happen anytime soon.”

“I guess we can go to mine.” Luke replied softly, “You can come over after I finish training, around 6? My brother is ordering Chinese and he always orders too much, so you can eat with us, if you want…”

“Yeah,” Calum replied, “sounds good. Where should we meet you? Or do you want to give us an address?”

“Our house doesn’t really have a number and the street doesn’t have a sign…” Luke replied, “You can meet me outside the school’s pool? I can drive us there.”

“Sounds good.” Calum nodded as the bell rang, “See you later!”

Calum dragged Michael after him and Luke meet Mr. Matthews gaze as he gathered his stuff, the teacher smiled softly at his brightest student and nodded, he hoped that the two other boys would help the other boy lighten up and feel more free.

 

As promised, when Luke exited the pool, Calum and Michael were waiting for him. He silently lead them over to his car and climbed in. Michael found himself pleasantly surprised when All Time Low filled the car, but he continued to sit silently in the back seat. Calum, on the other hand, chatted Luke’s ear off from the passenger’s seat.

“Is that a giant rooster?!” Calum exclaimed as Luke turned right at said giant rooster. Looking around, Calum seemed to just realized that they weren’t in the area he expected Luke to live in.

“His name is Monty.” Luke replied, bristling a little when he picked up on why Calum was confused, “We live about 30 minutes from school. I’m surprised you just noticed.”

Calum blushed slightly and took in the town that Luke was driving through. It was cute. Too small for Calum, but still cute. Shortly after, Luke pulled down a gravel drive and stopped in front of the house at the end. A cute two-story on a large lot. The two boys followed Luke inside.

“Lucas?” a voice called from the other room.

“Hey, Jack.” Luke replied, taking his shoes off before continuing into the house, inviting Calum and Michael to do the same.

“I was feeling ambitious and indecisive, so I ended up ordering the entire Chicken Menu. I hope you worked up an appetite during your session, otherwise we will be having Chinese for a week. Not that that is a bad thing, but we would get tired of it and then it’ll sit in the refrigerator until you clean it out because you’re the first to get tired of mess and--” Jack cut himself off as Luke entered the kitchen followed by Michael and Calum and exclaimed, almost as if he could have stopped it if he tried, “You brought friends!!!” 

“Jack…” Luke sighed, trying to blend into the wall.

“BEN!” Jack yelled out the kitchen window to the last occupant of the house, “Lucas brought friends over!”

“Michael and Calum, this is Jack, my brother. My other brother is Ben and he should be in soon.” Luke introduced, “Jack, this is Michael and Calum. We’re working on a semester long project together.”

“So, it’s more like you brought potential friends!” Ben beamed, “Good for you, kiddo. Now, what was your best time today? How was training?”

Jack shook his head and sighed as Ben swept Luke from the room to discuss Luke’s training session.

“You guys could do him a lot of good.” Jack muttered, handing two plates to the guests.

Calum and Michael didn’t know how to respond to that, so they took the invitation to serve themselves and joined Jack at the table. 

Shortly after, Luke and Ben re-entered the room. Jack stood up and pushed Luke down into the chair next to Calum and began to fix a plate.

“Jack, I’m not three.” Luke responded, his voice hard, “I can fix my own plate.”

“That may be so,” Jack replied, not looking at his little brother, “but I know for a fact that you skipped dinner last night because you were studying for that calculus test, you skipped breakfast this morning because you had to go in early for a morning session, and I don’t trust that you remembered to eat lunch. Please eat all the food on the plate.”  
Luke looked at the plate skeptically and raised an eyebrow at his brother, “No one could eat all of this.”

“Then at least eat all the Cashew Chicken, it is your favorite.” Jack replied, watching his little brother pick up the chopsticks and start to eat.

“So,” Ben asked, sitting down, “what’s this project?”

“We have to re-invent a fairy tale.” Luke replied, seeming only a little more relaxed in his home.

“That should be fun.” Jack replied, “You’re a great writer, kid. You guys will do great.”

“Yeah,” Calum grinned, “we’ll be quite the team!”

“Don’t give me that look.” Jack responded, not even looking at Luke who was huffily eating his food.

“I’m full.” Luke said ten minutes later and trying to push away from the table.

“No you’re not.” Jack replied.

“Sit down.” Ben gently sank Luke back into his chair.

Luke sighed, but complied, pushing the food around his plate, softly he said, “I’m really not hungry though. And I really need to take a shower.”

“Go on, kiddo.” Ben said softly, he and Jack watching as Luke took his plate to the counter and put the leftovers in their respective containers and then placed his plate in the dishwasher.

“I’ll show you guys to his room once you’re done eating.” Jack said.

 

“Here it is.” Jack said, opening the door to the last room on the second floor, “He should be almost done.”

With that Jack closed the door and left his brother’s new kinda-maybe friends alone.

Michael let out a low whistle as he looked over at the shelf over-flowing with trophies and medals, five Golds from the Olympics hanging protected in a frame. Calum, meanwhile, looked around the room at the pictures. There were tons of Luke and his brothers throughout the years and one picture on the desk of a curly haired boy who was obviously not a family member.

“Who’s this?” Calum asked, holding up the photo as Luke entered the room in a pair of loose fitting sweatpants and an old t-shirt that looked too big on him.

“That’s my--Ashton.” Luke replied, not looking at either boy but walking over to the desk to pull out his notebook for English and sat down on his bed cross-legged, inviting the other two to sit as well. Calum choose to sit on the bed next to Luke while Michael choose the beanbag chair by the window.

“So...you have an Ashton?” Calum asked, a small smile on his face as Luke blushed darkly, “I think it’s cute.”

“Can we start?” Luke asked, voice soft and not wanting to look at either boy.

“Yes.” Michael replied, his dislike for the taller boy had been shrinking since being in the house, replaced by curiosity. Gesturing to the overflowing bookshelf, he asked, “You got a favorite?”

Luke was silent for a moment before saying, “Peter Pan.”

“I like that one, too.” Michael gave a small smile.

“Well, I guess it’s decided.” Calum clapped his hands together, “We’ll do Peter Pan.”

“Guess it was kind of a waste of time, then,” Luke replied, “You guys coming all the way out here. I can drive you home.”

“I’ll text Michael’s mom in an hour, she’ll come get us.” Calum replied, “We’re going to be working together all semester, and we have been in the same class since eighth grade, we might as well get to know each other.”

“You already know me.” Luke replied, gesturing over to the medals, “Everyone does.”

Calum frowned as he said that, sounding defeated and saddened rather than cocky. He cleared his throat and pressed on, “No. We know that you’re one of the best swimmers in the world. We don’t know you.”

“What do you want to know?” Luke asked, looking down at his notebook.

“We’ll start off easy.” Calum grinned, “What’s your favorite color?”

“Turquoise.” Luke replied. After a beat, he returned the question, learning that Calum’s was green and that Michael’s was scarlet.

A couple hours had passed and Calum had yet to text for a ride home and Michael had slowly moved onto the bed.

“Shouldn’t you guys be heading home soon?” Luke yawned, glancing at the clock, “It’s getting late.”

“Nah.” Calum replied, stretching out, “We don’t have school tomorrow anyway.”

“And my mom would never be able to find this place.” Michael added with a grin.

“You’re stuck with us, Hemmings.” Calum tagged on, shoulder bumping the blond.

“I guess you guys can stay,” Luke grinned, making Calum and Michael swell with some kind of emotion at the first large, care-free smile they had seen from him.

“Don’t you need to ask?” Calum responded, “I mean, Michael still needs to ask permission and we’ve known each other since we were babies.”

“You heard Jack when you walked in this afternoon,” Luke huffed out a laugh, “he’ll enthusiastically say yes...and probably buy a cake….And tell everyone in town….It’s best to not give him time to plan.”

“Are your parents out of town, or something?” Michael asked, instantly regretting it when Luke’s face fell.

“My parents passed when I was a baby. There was a car accident and I was in the back seat. I was a couple months old. My brothers raised me.” Luke picked at a loose string on his t-shirt, “They try their best. I know they sometimes feel like they’re failing and I don’t exactly make it easy on them.”

Neither boy knew what to say to that, so they both hugged Luke tightly. Luke stiffened momentarily, but then sank into the hug. The three fell asleep like that shortly after.  
Jack silently opened to door to check, definitely not to spy, on his little brother and smiled softly at the sight. He quickly took a picture, turned off the light, and silently shut the door.

“I wonder if I can get to the bakery before they wake up tomorrow…” he muttered to himself, looking down at the picture he had just taken.

 

“Lucas!!!” Jack burst into the room the next morning, startling awake his brother and his friends, Calum falling off the bed with a dignified screech, “I ran to the bakery this morning in honor of you making FRIENDS!”

“Told you…” Luke mumbled. He looked over at his clocked and cursed under his breath, “It is really that late!?”

“Dude, it eight in the morning,” Michael chuckled, watching as Luke frantically shot out of bed.

“I have a session.” Luke replied, “It was supposed to start an hour ago!”

“And Ben cancelled it.” Jack replied, which instantly calmed Luke but also made him suspicious.

“What did you do?” Luke raised an eyebrow, “Ben would never cancel a session.”

“There may have been blackmail involved.” Jack replied, “You’re stressing yourself out. We made a deal that there would be no morning or weekend sessions. At least for this semester.”

“But-!” Luke immediately tried to protest, but was cut off.

“Luke, you need to take care of yourself first, and your career second.” Jack insisted, eyes wide as he put his hands on his brother’s shoulders, “I need you to do this.”

Luke hugged Jack tightly, sticking his face into his neck the way he had done since he could remember, “Okay.”

“Good.” Jack replied, nodding his head, “Now, there is cake in the kitchen if you guys want some breakfast.”

Luke huffed out a laugh and shook his head before leading his friends out of the room and down to the kitchen.

Luke bypassed the cake and went over to where Ben was sitting on the couch. Sitting down next to him, he leaned over and whispered, “I can sneak in those sessions and Jack will never know.”

“He’ll know.” Ben laughed. Regaining the slight composure that he had lost he said, “He was right. You push yourself too much. Especially with that shoulder injury. You’ve been training your whole life. And I’ve pushed it, I’ve pushed you. I never even thought to ask you what you wanted.”

“I wanted to win gold.” Luke replied earnestly.

“And you won five, Luke.” Ben replied, looking as proud of Luke as he always did.

“And I want one more shot to win more, at least eight.” Luke responded, “Then I can get that shoulder surgery and retire. But I want one more shot at the Olympics.”  
“And I will wholeheartedly support you.” Ben nodded, “But for this semester, just the after school training sessions.”

Luke gave a small smile and held out his pinky. Ben grinned as he linked his pinky with his brother’s.

“I’m glad you made some friends, kiddo.” Ben whispered, so as to not embarrass Luke the way Jack loved to do.

“I am, too.” Luke smiled softly, watching as Calum and Michael argued over who got the corner with the biggest glob of frosting on it.

“Show them around town.” Ben prompted, lightly shoving Luke’s good shoulder, “And get some cake. Jack was very excited that the bakery had some already pre-made.”  
Luke chuckled, but stood up and walked over to the counter and cutting the piece Jack had set out for him in half. When he noticed the expression on Jack’s face, he quickly said, “I’ll eat the rest of that piece later.”

Jack just replied by pressing a kiss to Luke’s forehead and going over to the couch to pester Ben.

The boys ate in silence and then went back up to Luke’s room.

“You guys should probably call your parents so they know where you are.” Luke said, “I can take you guys home if you need to.”

“It would be nice to get new clothes on…” Calum muttered, taking his phone out and calling his mom, Michael following suit.

While they did that, Luke grabbed a fresh change of clothes and walked out of the room and into bathroom. When he entered the room again, he was wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a simple white t-shirt. He slid his Team USA jacket on and a pair of converses onto his feet. 

“Well,” Michael teased, “Don’t you look like a Ralph Lauren ad.”

Luke blushed, looking down at his feet, “Did you want to go home or….”

“Only to change.” Calum replied, “When I told my mom we were with you she said I should pick up all my school work since you’re a genius and all.”

“Same…” Michael trailed off, “I’m not doing so hot in biology.”

“And we both need a lot of help in math.” Calum tagged on, “Wanna help us out?”

“Sure.” Luke smiled, “Come on.”

 

“So, you should show us around town.” Michael replied as Luke drove back through the town square couple hours later.

“Okay.” Luke nodded, “let me just take the car home first.”

Once he had pulled back into the drive, the boys hopped out and headed into town.

“This is too cute!” Calum all but squealed as he took in the town square, complete with a gazebo in the middle.

“Welcome to Willowbrooke.” Luke smiled, looking around at the town he grew up in. 

He lead them around the square, answering their questions and returning the friendly greetings from people walking past. He stopped them in front of the bookstore. He seemed to pause for a moment, weighing his options, before leading them into the store.

“This store is my favorite.” Luke said softly, as if afraid of judgement.

“It’s nice.” Calum looked around the brightly lit shop, the wall of windows letting in the natural sun light.

Luke grinned and lead them to the far corner of the shop, hidden from anyone’s sight. There, they saw the a large stack of pillows with Christmas lights strung up around them, lighting the area in a gentle glow, “I come here a lot. This is the Mesopontine Poetry section, not a lot of people in this town are interested in that, so no one but the shop owners know about this….and Ashton.”

“When do we get to meet this Ashton?” Calum asked, looking over at Luke.

“Maybe next weekend.” Luke replied, “He’s been out of town for the past two weeks. Also, try not to mention him around my brothers. They don’t know about him, yet.”

“Do they know you like guys? Or do they just not know about Ashton?” Michael gave Luke a calculating look.

“They just don’t know about Ashton.” Luke replied, “I don’t want them to make a big deal about it. I mean, you saw how Jack responded to you guys. But, I’m going to tell them soon. Maybe next week…”

“I wanna be there when you do it!” Calum laughed, following the blond as he lead them out of the store.

Luke just laughed and kept walking, giving them the grand tour.

“Lucas!” an older woman called out, stepping out of the market.

“Hello, Mrs. Hansen.” Luke smiled in greeting, “How are you today?”

“I would be better if I hadn’t heard that your brothers ordered take-out again.” She smiled, “Tell them that if they refuse to cook, then I will cook for them. You’re a growing young man, you need proper food.”

“I’ll let them know.” Luke laughed, the older woman smiled in response and walked past them.

“So…” Michael began with a confused expression, “how did she know you had take-out last night?”

“This whole town keeps tabs on everyone.” Luke chuckled, “And when one household orders take out as much as ours does, people notice. Personally, I think Jack is trying to set a record, or get a plaque, or something.”

Michael and Calum laughed and the three continued to walk around the Square. They were sitting in the gazebo when a voice called out, “Luke!”

Luke’s eyes widened and his grin grew as he stood up, “Ash!”

He ran toward the curly haired boy standing in front of the gazebo. The curly haired boy caught him and spun him around. Luke grabbed his face and kissed him passionately, both boys laughing softly as they broke apart, Ashton resting his head on Luke’s forehead, eyes sparkling with adoration for the boy in his arms.

“Guess this means I have to meet the brothers, huh?” Ashton laughed, looking around to see various townspeople watching them, a couple applauding and wolf-whistling.

“Wanna come over for dinner tonight?” Luke smiled, “We’re probably having leftover Chinese, but don’t tell Mrs. Hensen.”

“I’ll be there.” Ashton grinned, letting Luke drag him into the gazebo.

“I want you to meet my friends.” Luke’s smile split his face in two when he said those words and Ashton thought it was adorable, “This is Calum and Michael.”

“Nice to meet you.” Ashton nodded to the two before turning back to Luke, “What time should I come over and should I come in a suit of armor? Or is a bullet-proof vest fine?”

“Do you really think I would allow a firearm in the same house that Jack occupies?” Luke raised an eyebrow, “Just come as you. They’ll like you.”

Ashton kissed Luke’s forehead and mumbled, “See ya later, Penguin.”

Luke just laughed as Ashton jogged off in the direction of his house. Luke then snapped out of it upon realizing what he still had to do.

“Okay, so I need to tell my brothers, like now.” Luke muttered to himself, “So, I’ll do that, I’ll help you guys with your homework, then take you home. While I’m taking you home, Ben can go to the store to pick up the ingredients for dinner. Okay. That is the plan.”

Luke lead the way back to the house, mentally going through all the possible scenarios. When he had Jack and Ben sitting on the couch as he paced the living room in front of the couch, he began, “I need to tell you guys something and you can’t flip out.”

“Go on, kid.” Ben smiled encouragingly.

“I have a boyfriend. It’s been almost six months. And I didn’t tell you guys because I didn’t want you to completely lose your cool and I’ve only known for, like, four of those months, that it was the real thing. I really, really like him and he’s coming over for dinner tonight. I was going to tell you soon, but he got home from his school trip earlier than I thought he would and the whole town saw me kiss him in the square. I was going to have him over when he got back. Please don’t be mad that I didn’t tell you.”

“What’s his name?” Jack raised an eyebrow, “And how old is he?”

“Ashton Irwin, you know his mom most likely. They live here.” Luke replied, “And he’s 21, a junior at UConn-Hartford.”

“He’s 21?” Ben’s voice was low and Calum and Michael had to struggle to contain their laughter as Luke turned red, “How did you meet him?”

“I was tutoring his younger brother.” Luke replied, fidgeting, “He’s a really nice guy, and I have always been mature for my age. And I know that I should have told you guys about him sooner but I didn’t want you to over-react and you have, like, six hours to get used to the idea because he’s coming over for dinner and I expect you to be nice!!”

“You plan to have your boyfriend over for a ‘meet the family’ meal when dinner is leftover Chinese food?” Ben raised an eyebrow.

“No.” Luke shook his head, “I’m making dinner. I’ll make you a list and you’ll go to the store to get it when I take Michael and Calum home.” 

“Okay.” Ben nodded.

“I’m gonna go help them with their homework now.” Luke gave Jack a weary look before leaving the room.


End file.
